Emerson Network Power (NYSE: EMR) announced that Blackiron Data is the first Canadian data center provider to select and install the Liebert DSE room-based data center cooling system. Blackiron will use the system to provide highly efficient cooling within its 50,000 square-foot, Tier III, LEED-certified data center in Toronto.
Blackiron, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Primus Telecommunications Group, Incorporated (PTGi; NYSE: PTGI), partnered with Emerson Network Power to implement the Liebert DSE room-based cooling technology at its new Toronto DC3 site, Canada’s first Tier III design and construction-certified data center facility.
“We had three objectives in building our newest data centre in Toronto -- make it environmentally friendly, attain third-party certifications, and guarantee 100 percent availability for our customers,” comments Ron Ethier, vice president, Data Centres and Operations, at Blackiron Data.
“The Liebert DSE allows us to meet all three of our objectives," continues Ethier. "The system leverages Toronto’s cool temperatures for optimum efficiency and energy use without sacrificing performance or disrupting our availability guarantee for customers. Utilizing this new precision cooling technology was one of the key elements to the Toronto data center successfully achieving Uptime Institute and LEED certifications.”
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Blackiron Data’s Toronto DC3 facility uses multiple 40-ton Liebert DSE cooling systems to regulate cooling in the 50,000-square-foot data center, with power density at 15kW per rack. Each system features variable speed fans, staged evaporator coils, tandem Copeland Scroll Digital compressors and pumped refrigerant economizers to ensure highly efficient and effective cooling, no matter the season.
With the environment in mind, an important element of the design and build of DC3 was to avoid the waste water often associated with water-cooled chillers, notes Emerson. Blackiron reportedly insisted on using cooling technology that did not use water, a configuration that benefits both the environment and customers. The installation of the system has allowed Blackiron to save up to 100 million liters of water waste a year, as traditionally associated with operating a data center of similar size, according to Emerson.
The Liebert Econophase, a pumped refrigerant economizer, leverages cold outside air to cool the refrigerant used in the Liebert DSE system, reducing or eliminating compressor operation. This system provides cooling within the data center, allowing Blackiron to cool a large space without chiller plants and chilled water. With Toronto’s cool temperatures, this translates into free cooling more than 75 percent of the year, allowing Blackiron to significantly lower power usage and energy expenses. During the summer, the Liebert DSE utilizes the most efficient variable capacity compressors for operation.
Since opening its doors in September 2012, Blackiron's Toronto data center has seen maximized energy efficiency, offering a 100 percent availability guarantee while aggressively reducing power consumption and related energy costs. “Our team was thrilled to deliver an integrated system that has enabled Blackiron Data to use water-saving refrigerant-based economizers for such a large portion of the year, helping them to realize a great amount of energy and financial savings," comments Steve Madara, vice president, global cooling, Emerson Network Power.
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